Christians honoured by The Queen

Becoming an Officer or Commander of The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is quite an achievement.

OBE

Creative commons - marcus_jb1973

More commonly referred to as CBEs or OBEs, the titles are given to men and women who have achieved extraordinary success in their respective fields.

On the Queen’s Birthday Honours list this year were three names well known to Christians in the UK.

Patrick Regan, Les Isaacs and Debra Green have all been recognized with OBEs.

For over 15 years, Patrick Regan’s motto that “hopeful kids do not join gangs” has been at the heart of his work with XLP – a project that both supports and creates community projects in inner cities.

The young youth worker’s charity has already attracted attention from David Cameron, and Patrick says he’s “delighted” to receive the award.

Les Isaacs started Street Pastors in 2003 to provide friendly weekend assistance to revelers. The initiative has grown and spread across the UK, to now include 9000 trained volunteers who typically work between 10pm and 3am on the streets of their own town or city. Rev Isaacs has been recognised with an OBE.

Debra Green of Redeeming Our Communities was also on this year's list of names. She said:

“This official recognition of our work is extremely encouraging and will act as a spur to step up our efforts to see many more examples of community transformation across the whole of the UK!"

As well as these three big names, other Christians have been recognized this week.

Jean Gibson of Care for the Family Northern Ireland was awarded an MBE for services to the community. Kidz Klub leader Dave Sharples is known locally in Liverpool as ‘Captain Dave’ also picked up an MBE for his commitment to the children and young people in his local area.

Mission International founder Hugh Henderson was also on the list of names to receive an MBE. In a statement Hugh said: "This unexpected but very welcome award is well received, however the many supporters in the UK and our partners in the developing world are the ones who have made the successful work of Mission International possible."

Finally, David Smith, who established Christian charity the Boaz Trust, which provides support, food and accommodation to people seeking asylum, was one of the recipients of the British Empire Medal which was re-introduced this Jubilee year.